


Fair

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-09
Updated: 2008-02-01
Packaged: 2019-01-19 17:21:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12414588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: She threw a glare in her ex-boyfriend’s direction. “Sorry, but I don’t talk to lying cheats,”� she said before quickly disappearing up the stairs to her dormitory. James Potter, looking very red in the face, was left standing in the oppressive silence of the common room.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

_**"i miss you, you hurt me, you left with a smile." -kelly clarkson** _

******

 

_"You_ fucking _asshole."_

_James looked up, one hand still on the strange brunette's breast, to see_ her _standing in the doorway. He flew up, but it was too late. The door slammed shut behind_ her _, leaving James sitting on the bed in stunned silence. Celeste, still topless, snickered audibly._

_"What a psycho," she said in her slow, high-pitched drawl. James's blood boiled. He picked her hot pink bra up off the floor and tossed it to her._

_Get out," he whispered._

_"C'mon, Jamesie, she's gone," Celeste simpered, making him shudder in anger. He exploded._

_"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM BEFORE I THROW YOU OUT!"_

_The girl was gone before the sentence was finished, leaving the door wide open as she bolted out. James sat on the edge of his bed, truly alone for the first time in his life._

 

_******_  



	2. Chapter 1: Fighting for a Lost Cause

_**"** **i'm tired of fighting, tired of fighting, fighting for a lost cause" -beck**  
_

******

 

"Lily! LILY!"

Lily Evans turned around at the sound of her name. A tall, longhaired boy waved at  
her and jogged over to where she was standing. Several girls shot jealous looks  
Lily's way: with his smooth charm and good looks, Sirius Black was easily the  
most eligible bachelor at Hogwarts School.

"Hullo, Sirius," Lily said. "What's up?"

Sirius flicked back a stray strand of dark hair. "Intramural Quidditch tonight, Lil,"  
he said. "You're still on as a Chaser?"

"I dunno, Sirius, I'm supposed to tutor first year Charms tonight..."

" _C'mon_ , Lily! Without you we're down a player, and we're playing bloody _Malfoy_ – think of what a blow it'll be to his ego to lose to you!"

Lily laughed. "Oh alright, then. But don't think I'm doing it as any favour to you, smartass!" she said as Sirius's face lit up. "I only want to see Malfoy cry  
when he loses to a load of blood traitors like yourself."

"Good enough for me!" Sirius gave her a friendly peck on the cheek. "Six o'clock down  
by the field!" He called as he plowed his way through the crowd and disappeared  
around the corner, leaving Lily chuckling to herself. After a second or two she  
began making her way up to Theory of Magic.

Lily Evans and Sirius Black, among thousands of other 11 to 17 year olds, were  
students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school for EnglandÕs  
secret magical population. It was September of 1977, and Lily had just entered  
her seventh and final year at Hogwarts under the distinguished title of Head Girl.

By five o'clock she was comfortably curled up on a sofa in the Gryffindor common  
room. She was halfway through her book, _Hairy Snout, Human Heart_. As classes had just ended, the common room was fairly crowded with students hanging around with friends, so  
when the chatter suddenly quieted, Lily looked up from her reading. Everyone was speaking in hushed voices, glancing quickly from Lily to the doorway.

A handsome, bespeckled boy stood awkwardly in the entrance, obviously aware that  
the entire room was focused on him. Lily felt her face flush with anger and  
tried to slip out before the boy noticed she was there. 

Too late.

"Er...hi, Lily."

She threw a glare in her ex-boyfriend's direction. "Sorry, but I don't talk to lying cheats," she said before quickly disappearing up the stairs to her dormitory. James Potter, looking very red in the face, was left standing in the oppressive silence of the common room.

Lily sat on her bed and cried, for the hundredth time since June, until it was time  
to go down to Quidditch.

******

The midnight crying still hadn't stopped, and it was already October. Marlene McKinnon decided that enough was enough.

"Something's got to be done!" she whispered to Lucy Clearwater as they watched Lily  
cheerfully butter her toast at breakfast one Monday morning. "It's not _natural_ – they only dated for about six months!"

Lucy nodded. "Even _he's_ moved on. Did you hear he asked out Glenda Chittock? She was going on about it for ages last night."

The two girls looked back at Lily, who was blissfully unaware of their topic of conversation. 

"Well, we have to do something," Marlene said. "Remus Lupin came up to me Friday after  
Charms and told me he'd caught her blubbering in the Restricted Section of the library."

" _Pathetic_..."

"What're you two whispering about?" Lily said suddenly, looking over the breakfast  
platters at the two girls.

"Erm...nothing, really," Lucy said. "Just talking about Amelia Robards horrible new haircut."

Lily snorted. "It would do you two some good if you studied as much as you gossiped."

"When do you have break today, Lil?" Marlene said, ignoring the comment.

"After lunch,"

"How 'bout a quick butterbeer in Hogsmeade with me? Sirius said he could show me the  
passageway into town."

"Mmm," Lily said. "Meet in the common room?"

"See you then," Marlene smiled as she and Lucy got up. "I'll sort her out before the day's done," she whispered as they left the Great Hall.

Ignorant of her friends' plans, Lily enjoyed an easy morning. She only had Double Charms, a subject that came naturally to her. She picked up on the newest charm that Professor Flitwick taught them within the first hour, and spent the rest of the period happily chatting with classmates. When the bell for lunch rang she walked up to Gryffindor Tower to get money for Hogsmeade. 

A slight, fair-haired boy sat in one of the armchairs of the common room. He looked up abruptly when Lily walked in.

"Wotcher, Lily," he said, smiling softly.

"Hullo, Remus," she replied. "Aren't you going down to lunch?"

Remus turned his sad, grey eyes towards the roaring fire in front of him. "I'm feeling a bit out of sorts today, actually. I don't think food would be such a good idea."

Lily studied his thin face. Remus was a strange boy, soft-spoken and perpetually ill: quite different from his boisterous group of friends. "So no Quidditch for you tonight?" she asked. "Sirius will be disappointed, he'll have to find another Keeper."

Remus chuckled. "I'm sure it won't be too much of a problem. Gawain Radford's been trying to get on the team since term started." He looked up from the fire and stared unnervingly at Lily. "How have you been?"

The simple question seemed invasive. "Oh, fine. Loads of work, but I'm managing," she said, knowing she was not really answering his question. "Anyway, I've got to be off, Marlene and I are going into Hogsmeade. Bye, Remus!" She hurried up to her dormitory and then out of Gryffindor Tower as fast as she could before he had time to rephrase his question.

Marlene was talking animatedly with a Hufflepuff seventh year when Lily met her in the  
Entrance Hall. "Bye, Patrick!" she said before giving Lily a hug. "Ready to go? Sirius gave me this mad map to follow." She waved a tattered piece of parchment that seemed to depict all of Hogwarts. 

The two girls kept quiet on the way to Hogsmeade for fear of being caught, but once they had safely gotten into the village they began chatting. In the Three Broomsticks, Marlene ordered them mugs of steaming hot butterbeer. They sipped their drinks for a while before Marlene put down her mug and looked meaningfully across the table.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Lucy and I heard you crying again last night," Marlene started. "Actually, we've heard you _every_ night since school started."

Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "It's not every night..." she mumbled.

"It _is_ , Lil, and we're worried about you. It's been almost five months now – don't you think it's about time to move on?"

"Like it's that easy!"

"Well, it obviously hasn't been that hard for James – "

_"_ _Of course_ it hasn't been bloody hard for _Potter_!" Lily said through clenched teeth. "He's probably been too busy fucking _Glenda_ _Chittock_ to notice it's not me beneath him!"

"So you heard..."

"Yes, I bloody heard, Marlene! How could I have not heard – the whole school's been mad about it since yesterday morning!"

It was Marlene's turn to shift uncomfortably. "Lil, me and Luce are only trying to look out for you. And we...we thought maybe it'd do you some good to go on a date with someone else. To, you know...start easing yourself off of him,"

Lily sighed. She felt to...tired for this conversation. "I justÉit took me _so long_ to let myself give Potter a chance," she said quietly. "And then after all that – after all his big  
promises – for him to go and do exactly what I feared he would..."

"I know, Lily," Marlene said, taking her friend's hand. "He's a bloody git and deserves a couple good hexes. But I know a load of _really_ nice guys who'd love to take you out sometime." She saw her friend hesitate and pressed on. "Andros Cresswell was just asking about you today in Potions!"

Lily actually laughed. "The Ravenclaw Keeper?" Marlene nodded. "But isn't he dating...?"

"They broke up last month!"

"I supposeÉas long as he knew it was nothing serious..." Lily said slowly and Marlene cheered.

"I'll give him the go ahead at dinner!" she squealed. "Don't worry, Lil, this is definitely for the best," she added, seeing her friend's still-doubtful expression.

"I hope you're right..."

******

"MARLENE MCKINNON!"

Marlene looked up from her Potions essay to see James Potter storming across the common room towards her. "Yes, James?" she asked.

He was raging. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAVE YOU HAD TO DO WITH LILY AND ANDROS CRESSWELL?"

"Lily and Andros Cresswell? What about them?"

"THEY'RE BLOODY DATING, THAT'S WHAT!"

" _Really_? How fantastic,"

James's face was quite red, and Marlene could tell that it was taking all his self-discipline not to continue shouting. " _So_...so you didn't set them up?"

Marlene widened her eyes innocently. "Why _...no_ ,"

"Even though Peter Pettigrew swears he saw you introducing them?"

"James, outside of Potions, I've never spoken three words to Andros Cresswell." Marlene  
lied. "PettigrewÕs a untrustworthy little sneak, you know that."

"He happens to be one of my best mates," James snarled, "so I'm going to go ahead and say I _don't_ know that."

Marlene smiled. "Well, anyway, it's been lovely chatting, James, but it looks as if I have quite a bit to catch up on with my best friend," she said, and promptly left James, still red-faced and seething, to go back to his friends.

She found Lily sitting on her bed, reading some mad book about werewolves. 

"Oi, you sneak! You didn't tell me you're dating Andros!"

Lily looked up from her book. "Did Lucy tell you? She was just in here asking me about  
it."

_"Actually_ , she didn't," Marlene said. "I had the pleasure of having it screamed at to me by James Potter."

"Ugh,"

"My thoughts exactly. Now tell me everything."

Lily sighed, but it wasnÕt unhappily. "Well, there's not much to tell, really. We went out for a coffee last week, after you set it up. And then we kept meeting up at the library, and then last night he caught me after dinner and asked me to be his girlfriend." She shrugged. "I couldn't really think of a good reason to say no, so I said yes."

Marlene burst out laughing. "What a great reason for dating someone!" she managed. "Anyway, if there's one good thing that comes out of it, it's that you're clearly making James mad with jealousy!"

Lily smiled. "Yeah, Luce told me he's gone and dumped Glenda. Poor thing."

"Well," Marlene said, "you have my best wishes. I'm off to brave the common room again." She started for the door, but turned around. "Oh, and Lily?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm glad you're okay," and she walked out the door.

Lily stared at the empty place where her friend had just been standing. _Am I okay?_ she  
thought. The idea of James raging in jealousy didn't make her happy; in fact, it made her feel awful. And, as Marlene had been maybe too quick to point out, it wasn't as if Lily was madly in love with Andros. _The poor boy_ , she thought. _I won't be much of a girlfriend._

******

Lily's prediction turned out to be all too true. To James's great ease, she and Andros  
broke up after less than a month of dating. Marlene and Lucy met over lunch the next day.

"I just can't deal with _another_ five months of crying," Lucy whispered, shaking her head.

"I hardly think she was that attached to Cresswell, Luce,"

"Rebound break-ups are the _worst_ , though..." 

"Heard the good news, Marlene? Lucy?" James was standing over them, positively beaming.

"You must be damn pleased with yourself, James," Marlene said playfully. "I heard you wouldn't leave Cresswell alone till he ended it with her."

"So what if I did?"

"You're a bloody prick, Potter," Lucy whispered angrily. "Have you forgotten it's _your_ fault you and Lily broke up? What with the whole cheating on her thing?" James opened his mouth and then closed it again, clearly at a loss for words. Lucy continued, "Why don't you just leave her the hell alone? Or do I have to jinx you before the message finally sinks through your thick skull?"

James glared at her and stormed away from them. Marlene stared at her friend. "Where  
did that come from?"

"You shouldn't egg him on, Marlene." Lucy said, picking up her bag.

"I wasn't..."

"You were. And I'm not sure if Lily would really appreciate her best friend _flirting_ with the guy who broke her heart." Before Marlene had a chance to reply, Lucy had already hurried out of the Great Hall. Lily was just coming down the stairs as Lucy came into the Entrance Hall.

"Hiya, Luce!"

"Hi, Lily. You're awfully cheerful for just breaking up,"

Lily laughed. "Like I ever cared two straws for Andros! I only went out with him because Marlene seemed so set on it!"

Lucy felt her face fall, but quickly hid it from her friend. "You going to Transfiguration? Want to walk together?" Lily nodded and the two set off down the hall. By the time they had reached the classroom, Sirius Black, who gave them each quick kisses on their cheeks when he saw them, had joined them.

Transfiguration was Lily's worst subject, and she had a bad habit of daydreaming the period away. Today her thoughts settled on Sirius, who although quite good at Transfiguration, spent most of the class time charming paper airplanes to fly above their heads.

Sirius Black and Lily Evans had been best friends since second year, when Professor  
Slughorn had paired them up in Potions. Sirius was Lily's longest friend at Hogwarts, even longer than Marlene and Lucy. His smooth words only made her laugh (quite a blow to Sirius's ego at first) and he was the only person who wouldn't put up with Lily's all-too-common bitchy moods. James had often been bothered by their closeness, mistaking friendship for something more. But Lily and Sirius had simply never seen each other in 'that way,' and Lily didn't think they ever would. 

Halfway through the class he caught her staring at him and gave winked cheekily at her.  
Several girls sighed jealously, but Lily only chuckled silently to herself. When Professor McGonagall dismissed the class half an hour early (with a hurried excuse about the Headmaster needing her), Sirius caught her in the hallway.

"Up for a little Quidditch?"

Within half an hour they were on the pitch, broomsticks in hand. This was their  
pastime: while Lucy and Marlene enjoyed gossiping over meals, Lily and Sirius  
always talked over a friendly one on one game of Quidditch.

After a few minutes passing the Quaffle, Sirius began talking. 

"So, you and Cresswell broke up." It wasn't a question, just a statement.

Yup," Lily said, chucking the large red ball back to him. It fell short and he threw himself into a dive to catch it.

"Thought you two were bound to get married, you'd dated for so long," Sirius said, after  
he'd come back to her height.

Lily laughed and then shrugged, catching the Quaffle as he threw it back to her. "We had nothing to talk about, nothing in common."

"He's a git, anyway," Sirius said. "What the hell were you thinking going out with him for?"

"Marlene put me up to it. Said it'd be good to get... _him_...off my mind."

"Marlene's a stupid, gossipy little girl, walking around the school thinking she's Merlin's gift to all of us."

"You _dated_ her, Sirius!" Lily said. Sirius laughed and circled around to the goal posts. "Anyway, that's why I went out with Cresswell, and it turned out awful, and that's all that needs to be said about that." She threw the Quaffle to him and he quickly shot it through the middle goal post. When he came back from retrieving the ball from the ground, he flew over to her looking serious.

"I just don't know about all this, Lil," he said. "I liked you and James together, thought you were a really good couple."

"I couldn't do it, Sirius," she said, shaking her head. "I always told myself if a guy ever cheated on me I'd end it right there..."

"But he didn't mean it, Lil! James is a _good_ guy!"

"He did the exact thing that kept me from dating him all these years, Sirius! He acted _exactly_ as he had with every one of his other girlfriends!" Tears sprang to her eyes, and she turned away to hide them. "How can you say that someone who perpetually cheats on his girlfriends is a good guy?" Her voice was muffled because she was wiping away her tears.

"You want to go down?" Sirius said. Lily nodded, her back still turned to him. She heard him fly down and was grateful: he knew she didn't want him to see her tear-streaked cheeks. When she reached the ground she had stopped crying. Sirius was waiting by the entrance to the stands. When she reached him she dropped her broomstick by his. She opened her mouth to speak, but he stopped her by throwing his arms around her tightly.

"I just don't like seeing you with these berks, Lil," he whispered into her hair. "You're worth so much more than Andros bloody Cresswell."

Despite herself, Lily felt hot tears fall down her cheeks again, and she hugged Sirius  
tighter so he wouldn't see. 


	3. Chapter 2: The Things Left Undiscovered

**_“who doesn’t long for someone to hold,  
who knows how to love you without being told” –natasha bedingfield_ **

 

    The dark rooms of the Slytherin Dungeon echoed with the secrets of its inhabitants. No other House was so good at keeping what must not be heard silent. The portraits, depicting famous Slytherins of the past, had never divulged what they overheard. It was something every Slytherin was proud of.

    The seeds of a new plot had just been sown, a plot more sinister than any that had been formed before. The portraits shook their heads in alarm, but their mouths remained shut. Lucius Malfoy knew that they could be trusted.

    “How can you be so sure your source is telling the truth?”

    Lucius turned his gaze to the sallow, dark-eyed face of Rodolphus Lestrange. “Don’t be foolish, Lestrange,” he said in his slow drawl. “There are ways of insuring sincerity.” Lestrange nodded.

    “So this is the time our parents have told us of!” A thin, black-haired woman breathed. “My mother spoke of the rise of a Dark Lord when I was a child!” Bellatrix Black’s face gleamed in appreciation, both terrible and beautiful at the same time.

    Lucius nodded. “His rise has begun, he is on the move. The Dark Lord wishes the first strike to be inside the walls of Hogwarts.” A murmur went through the small circle.

    “ _Inside_ Hogwarts, Malfoy?”

    “How can we…?”

    “With the professors watching our every move?”

    Bellatrix laughed, sending shivers down the spines of her peers. “Right under Dumbledore’s nose! This will make us _immortal_!” The others did not look as confident. “MacNair! Lestrange! Dolohov! Rookwood!” she snapped. “Surely you’re not scared of _Dumbledore_!”

    A pale girl, her long, white-blonde hair shimmering in the dimly lit dungeon, spoke. “Who are we to strike, Malfoy?”

    Bellatrix turned on her before Lucius could reply. “ _Who are we to strike?_ Narcissa, dear sister, we will strike them all! _All_ the filthy Mudbloods that contaminate this school!” She spoke with such vehemence that even Lucius seemed alarmed.

    “The Dark Lord wishes the number to be small,” he said. Bellatrix sneered but remained silent. “We are not to act under any orders except his own.”

    “But who are to be the first?” Narcissa Black had not shifted her gaze from Lucius, even during her sister’s outburst.

    Lucius produced a tiny piece of parchment from his cloak and set it on the table before them. “Here are the names. Learn them now, and then we must destroy the parchment.” The group moved forward eagerly, their lips forming the names as they read them. When each had memorized the name, Lucius held the parchment up to a candle. They watched it burn until all that was left was dusty ashes.

 

******

 

_It was April, her favorite month, and it was pouring rain. They had been planning to go to Hogsmeade for tea today, but Mother Nature apparently disagreed. So instead, they were meeting for an early lunch in the Great Hall, before most people would be ready to eat. It had been so long since they had spent a good amount of time together – Lily thought maybe the last time had been before Christmas break._

_She had been waiting in the common room for a while now – almost fifteen minutes. He was never late like this: maybe some cute sentiment, like taking one last look in the mirror to make sure he looked perfect for her, was holding him up. She smiled at the thought. It was exactly something he would do._

_Another ten minutes passed and he still hadn't appeared on the stairs. This was getting a little absurd. She decided to go up and find him herself. She dashed up the stairs, pausing for a second before she turned the doorknob._

_In those first seconds she wondered why he was still in bed; he rarely slept in. But there he was, a big lump under scarlet covers. And then he started moving, and the covers slipped off, and she stared._

_His hands were touching,_

_caressing,_

_stroking every inch of a topless brunette. Hoarse moans escaped the girl's lips as he played with her breast._

_Standing in the doorway, she heard words from far away. He turned his head, one hand still on the brunette's breast, and she realized she must have spoken. His lips opened, forming her name, but a horrible static had filled her ears, deafening her. She fumbled with the door and stumbled back into the common room. Somehow she found the strength to climb the stairs to her room, and she collapsed onto her bed._

_They found her, hours later, lying on top of her bed, completely motionless. Her open eyes were staring up at the ceiling blankly. They took her to Sirius. He held her in his arms as she sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until she felt as if the tears would never stop falling._

 

******

 

    Sirius Black didn't know if he would ever be able to forgive his best friend for cheating on Lily Evans. After years of obsessive plotting to win Lily's heart, Sirius couldn't believe James had thrown it all away so...carelessly. And for – he shuddered at the thought – _Celeste Bonham_.

    It was true that Sirius was a bit of a heartbreaker. He couldn't deny that. He could, however, say that he had never been involved with someone as irreplaceable as Lily.

    He hadn't known his own feelings until That Night. It was in that moment, as she cried herself to sleep in his arms over his cheating, son of a bitch best friend that he realized that he was, undeniably and irreversibly, in love with Lily Evans. Not that he would ever admit to it. If James had come up to him and asked him to swear on his life that he didn't love her, he would have lied. That's what friendship meant.

    But his being a loyal friend didn't stop him from spending tormented nights dreaming of her. Fantasizing about her touch on his skin, her lips gently brushing against his. He would wake up in a hot sweat most nights, her imagined breaths against his neck still lingering. She was the only girl he confided in: she knew the most intimate details of each of his relationships, she knew the deepest hatred he had for his family, and she knew of the anguish he endured because of the void of emotion he felt whenever he passed his younger brother in the hallways of Hogwarts.

    Yet, for the first time in almost six years of uncensored confidence, Sirius found himself forbidden to tell Lily of his newest love. He was sure she would think it the ultimate betrayal of her innocence. He winced at all the moments she could warp into a desperate attempt at intimacy: all the hugs they'd shared, his quick pecks on her cheek, the hours they had spent lying on his bed listening to the Wireless. And even more appalling was the way he imagined she would begin to think of That Night. How he had held her at her most vulnerable, after her cautious heart had been ripped from her chest, when she felt her tears would never dry. He imagined how she would think of That Night was she to know of his feelings: he was sure she would look at it as a ploy to win her exposed affections.

    And so he pretended to think of her as only a friend, cherishing every hug and every kiss on the cheek more than she would ever know. Sirius hid his feelings. He was good at it; being the black sheep of the Black family – if you excused the pun – had given him more than enough practice.

 

******

 

    November came faster than anyone believed, leaving October in its dust, and before the students had a chance to enjoy the colorful autumn trees, Hogwarts’ grounds was already covered in a thick blanket of snow. The seventh and fifth years found themselves weighted down by the enormous amount of homework the professors were assigning them in preparation for the O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts.

    The Quidditch season was also in full swing and James, Sirius, and Lucy (who was Keeper for the Gyffindor team) found themselves spending every precious free moment practicing for the upcoming Slytherin vs. Gyffindor match. Marlene and Lily, deprived of their best friend, now joined up with Remus Lupin and the sad Pettigrew boy, who were also missing best friends.

    It was a snowy Saturday morning and the newly founded foursome were lounging around in the Gryffindor common room. Pettigrew was practicing the Disillusionment Charm on himself, producing the strange result of the boy’s upper body blending in with the scenery while his legs and feet stayed the same. Marlene was feverishly writing a long letter, already finishing her second page and showing no signs of slowing down. Across from her by the roaring fire, Lily and Remus were playing their fourth game of chess. Remus had just put Lily’s king in checkmate…again.

    “It really isn’t fair, Remus,” Lily said, smiling as she wiped the chessboard clean with a flick of her wand. “You obviously spend all those sick days of yours locked up in here practicing chess.”

    Remus laughed. “Caught me red-handed, Lil. Not up for a fifth, then?” Lily shook her head. The two sat opposite each other for a few minutes in silence, neither able to think of something to talk about. Their friendship was a new one, and had been formed from a lack of real friends. It was awkward. Finally, Lily’s eyes fell on an abandoned _Daily Prophet_.

 

**CONTINUED MUGGLE ATTACKS MYSTIFY MINSITRY**

 

    The fold in the paper obscured the article. Lily picked it up and began reading out loud.

 

The latest mysterious attacks on five Surrey Muggles have left the Ministry of   Magic in a state of confusion. Although the official word is that misdirected Silencing Charms caused these “accidents” – which struck each victim dumb – one source close to the Minister says quite the opposite.

“This is the first round of attacks that left some magical imprint on Muggles,” says the source, who asked to remain anonymous. “The Minister, along with the entire Ministry, fears that the ‘accidents’ are actually something much more sinister.” _(Cont’d on page 3)_

 

    “It’s very strange, isn’t it?” Lily said after a second.

    Remus nodded. “What I’d like to know,” he said slowly, “is what kind of curse those Muggles were put under. I can’t have been just a – what did they say? – a ‘misdirected Silencing Charm.’ Those are about the least threatening charms.”

    They fell silent again.

    “I wonder…” Remus said. He had a strange look on his face, and the lines on his forehead, already so pronounced from his perpetual sickness, were even more apparent than usual.

    “Wonder what?”

    “Well…right before we left for school, I think in early August, there was a rumor whispered in my town.” Remus looked as if he were struggling to remember the words. “A rumor that there was a great wizard roaming nearby – a great, but Dark wizard.”

    Lily shrugged. “But aren’t there always rumors like that going around? People are always looking for the next Grindelwald.”

    “About a week after I heard that rumor, three Muggles turned up dead in their dining room. A Mr. and Mrs. Riddle, and their son, if I’m remembering it right. Of course, all the Muggles in town thought it was something as basic as poison, but I heard my Mum and Dad talking that night.”

    “About the Dark wizard?”

    Remus nodded. “Dad seemed to think this wizard was behind it, that he had heard from the Aurors at work that there was an alarming rise lately in Muggle attacks and killings.”

    “They caught him though, didn’t they?” Lily said, her eyes wide. “They caught the bloke that killed those Muggles?”

    “Nope. They couldn’t even find any evidence to give them a lead on him. Dad moved him and Mum out of Little Hangleton about a month ago. Mum’s a Muggle – he didn’t want to take any chances that the wizard would come back for more.”

    Lily shuddered. It suddenly seemed much colder in the room, even with the roaring fire. She felt Remus’ eyes on her.

    “You’re Muggle-born, aren’t you?”

    She nodded.

    “I wouldn’t be worried, Lily,” he said softly, and Lily felt that he could read her thoughts. “You’re safe at Hogwarts, and you live close enough to London for your family to be safe. No one would try murder right under the Ministry’s nose.”

    Lily didn’t respond. Her eyes had turned to look out the window at the sunny grounds. It was strange to think of some evil wizard attacking helpless victims when everything around Hogwarts appeared so cheerful. The sun glistened off the white snow and the frozen lake. Far off, over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, clusters of birds flittered about, their soft chirps only barely heard outside the castle walls. It was impossible to feel threatened by some nameless and faceless person here. Lily looked back at Remus. He was staring at the _Daily Prophet_ again.

    “Anything else interesting?” Lily asked.

    Remus shook his head. “Just something about a werewolf attack. Some little kid’s been bitten.” He tried to say this casually, but Lily noticed a nasty, anguished look flash across his face. But it was gone before she could be sure it had ever even been there.

    “Remus…”

    “Poor kid,” he said. “Can’t imagine what kind of life he’ll have now.” And he stood up, smiling sadly at Lily, and disappeared up into the boys’ dormitory.

    Lily stayed in her seat long after he left. Pettigrew had apparently given up on the Disillusionment Charm. He was now sound asleep and snoring loudly on one of the sofas. Marlene had disappeared, probably to the Owlery to send her finished letter. Lily’s thoughts turned from the Dark wizard to Remus.

    Everyone had always wondered about his perpetual illness, but Lily seemed to be the only one who had noticed that his mysterious disease kept him bedridden only once a month, and on the night of the full moon. She was surprised that Sirius and Potter, who, although mischievous, were far from unintelligent, had not figured out what she suspected. The two spent almost all their time in the company of the sickly boy. How could they have failed to see what Lily thought was ridiculously obvious: Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

 

******

 

_\---sorry about the ridiculously long wait…I got back to school and had basically zero time for anything else besides lacrosse and school. Enjoy, though!_


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